Adventures In Love
by ograndebatata
Summary: Neither the customer nor the cook would have thought that a simple visit to a café would lead to something that seemed out of a fairy tale. And yet, the moment the two of them laid eyes on each other, their meeting sparked just that. Alonso/Carmen. A belated contribution for the Elena of Avalor ship week on the Discord server.
1. Chapter 1 - Customer Importance

_The usual disclaimers about how I don't own Elena of Avalor or any of its characters apply._

_This fic was meant to have been posted a long time ago, as it was a contribution for the Elena of Avalor ship week on the Discord server, for the day two 'Adventure' which was meant to be about a crackship. _

_Unfortunately, far too many real life issues got in the way, and I was unable to get it, or any of my other ideas, ready on time. It also got long enough that I decided to break it into chapters rather than publish all of it at once._

_I hope you still enjoy it._

_Like all my Elena of Avalor fics, it takes place in my AU where episodes after 'Two Left Fins' are not taken into account._

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Customer Importance**

_A bit over a week before Avalor's third Navidad after Princess Elena's exit from the Amulet of Avalor..._

A growling stomach would usually not be described as something to be proud of, but as Alonso followed Avalor's new magister of trade into Café Angelica, he knew none of his body parts had ever spoken up at a better time.

Yes, Julio Guzman meant well, and it was remarkable he tried so hard to be good at his job, and it was good he had become more confident in his position since they first met at the last Feast of Friendship, and it was true Alonso was still trying to better himself. But there were limits for everything, and while Alonso had learned to be polite enough to not outright say so to the man, he was sick of hearing heaps of proposals that traders, whether Avaloran or not, had regarding partnerships with Cordoba.

Thankfully, his stomach's growl had served as an effective stopper to those, for the time being anyway, and Julio had suggested a meal on the house before he left for Cordoba to spend Navidad with his family.

At first, Alonso had accepted just to have some way of escaping this conversation, but as he smelled the divine whiffs coming from the kitchen even before he entered the place, he knew it had been a good idea for more reasons than one.

As he walked in, he couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort at the soft glow of the lights, the warm golden-orange on the walls, and the blue tables and chairs set about in an organized but not geometric fashion, each of them simple but well-crafted and sturdy.

It all seemed to give a feeling of being part of the family, like he heard Elena said she wanted her guests to feel, although this café looked far too old to have been set up by her.

"Here, Prince Alonso," the man instructed, pointing at a table for two right in front of the door. Alonso circled it so he could face the door and sat down as he removed his messenger bag from his shoulder. "Do you have anything in mind, or would you like to read the menu?"

Alonso picked up the list before him. "I think I'll read the menu. I don't know enough about Avaloran cuisine to ask for anything beforehand."

Julio nodded, standing at attention by his table like a soldier, his hands behind his back.

Trying to keep a calm expression, Alonso said, "Relax, will you? I won't terminate the alliance with Avalor if you just sit down for a bit."

The magister of trade did not sit down, but at least did stand in a more relaxed fashion, his arms now falling alongside his body.

Not as far as Alonso had suggested, but maybe it was better not to be too pushy, he decided as he started looking at the menu.

He recognized some dishes in it, like locro and guacamole and paella and enchiladas and tacos, but there were others which he had never heard of, like morisqueta and aguachile and puntas and milanesa and chicharron.

It might be interesting to try some of those out, but given it would be quite some time before he could eat again, and he might end up being accidentally rude by conveying through his expression that any given dish would be bad, perhaps he should go for something a bit more familiar.

_Sounds like you're not trying all that hard to be better, after all._ A reproachful voice pointed out at him.

Alonso suppressed a frown. He had been trying hard. The fact he still remembered all the proposals Julio Guzman had conveyed to him proved it, he thought.

But maybe he could try even harder. After all, his father went through even worse ordeals during his rule. If Alonso couldn't even be trusted to show gratitude for food he didn't like, he could hardly hope to be the kind of king who'd be a good ruler.

Not that he could hope that anyway, but he could still try his best.

_Just pick something! _Alonso told himself as he willed his eyes to pick something out from the list.

They landed on a dish at random, and he voiced his request to Julio.

"I'd like some rissoles with arroz rojo," he said. "Please." he added at the very last minute as he remembered his manners.

"I'll ask my sister to make some right away," Julio replied.

Saying so, he jogged someplace behind him, probably the kitchen to tell his sister. Interesting. Alonso would have thought the man would have called out the order rather than leave his guest alone, but perhaps he also felt the talk of trade matters had run its course and didn't feel comfortable around Alonso without it.

Shrugging to himself, Alonso settled more comfortably into his chair. He wouldn't say that to the man's face either, but he could do with some peace and quiet for a bit.

* * *

Sitting at the kitchen table, Carmen looked up as she heard the kitchen's double doors creaking open. Normally she barely blinked at the noise, but something about it was different enough this time that she raised her eyes from the new recipe she was outlining on paper before trying out for real.

Indeed, Julio had a rather strange halted skip to his step as he approached, his eyes glowing with eagerness and yet the rest of his posture strangely tense.

"You'll never guess who agreed to come to the café!" he whispered at her like an excited kid who'd gotten a toy he'd been wanting for months.

Carmen set down her pencil. "Hello to you too."

Julio stopped as if trying not to stumble on a sudden obstacle.

"Yes, yes, hello." he conceded. "Did you have a good day?"

"It was quiet. Enough people came here to turn in profit, but not enough to overwhelm the staff." She could see from the way he was tensing up that he was just dying to keep talking about his topic, so she added "I'm guessing you had a pretty great one. Who came here with you?"

"One of the best guests we could have!" Julio leaned forward and 'loud whispered'. "Prince Alonso of Cordoba!"

Carmen could actually feel her eyes widening.

"You mean he stayed with you all day long to listen to everything you wanted to tell him?"

Even without knowing him, she was impressed. Julio had had quite a lot of proposals to share, even though he had spent the better part of two days discarding lots of suggestions whether because they were repeated, too impractical to implement, or, in some rare cases, so asinine that they didn't deserve to be taken into consideration.

"I was impressed as well," Julio remarked. "Especially after Princess Elena's warnings about him."

Carmen shrugged. "Maybe he's trying to change?"

Julio nodded. "Maybe, but from how he acted with me, he either really changed a lot or wasn't that bad to begin with." Before Carmen could reply, her brother made a gesture as if pushing a heavy burden to the side. "Point is, he's here! And he's going to eat your food!" In a more normal tone, he finished. "He asked for rissoles with arroz rojo. Let's get them done."

Carmen narrowed her eyes. "We're almost closed. I'm not sure I can have those ready before then. Can't you ask him to order anything simpler?"

"We could close a bit later, can't we? This is an important customer, after all." He looked like he was ready to throw his arms up from the grandeur of his following statement. "And if he likes it, maybe word will spread to Cordoba, and other visitors from there will come here, and we'll get more money!"

Carmen tried not to frown.

"I think we're good on the money front for a while."

Julio folded his arms. "That's why we need to have enough to save up in case we ever end up on the wrong side of poverty again."

Carmen held back her remarks. She could see where Julio was coming from. Even with the café's success, it had taken over a year to pay off all the bills and debts that had built up during the dark period in their lives. Still, she didn't exactly like Julio's excessive concerns with money. They were well off by now, at least enough that she didn't see the need to seek for a source of profit everywhere.

"I'll help you." Julio added, opening his eyes wider and pouting like a puppy.

Carmen sighed. "I think you're overdoing it." She took a deep breath to gather herself. "But let's make the rissoles with arroz rojo."

Julio broke into a relieved smile. "Thank you, Carmen."

Despite herself, Carmen spared him a smile of her own before she put away her pencil and the book she had been writing on.

_Here's to hoping he can appreciate good food. _She thought as she picked up a piece of bread to be turned into crumbs. She knew some royals could be really picky about what they ate. Granted, that might be undeserved reputation in some cases. She didn't have motives to complain about any of those she had actually met, and no one had ever disliked any of her abuela's dishes.

Carmen closed her eyes, a jolt of pain cutting through her heart. Even years later, she could get bouts of sadness when thinking about abuelita. And she had been getting a lot of those lately with the approaching Navidad.

She willed the thought to leave her brain as she set the bread down on the table and went to get the onion. Her point was, Prince Alonso sounded like he would be the first royal she served who was a picky eater. Though Julio's words had hinted he was trying to be better, it was hard to say if he had become good enough to be polite about food he didn't like. Doña Paloma had spoken of his comments on single lettuce leaves after all.

Well, let him think whatever he thought. Carmen would do the dish he had requested, and would do her best job, like her professional and personal pride always compelled her to.

And if Prince Alonso didn't like it, all the worse for him.

* * *

_So, this is it for part 1. The following parts (I'm thinking there will be two or three more parts) should be out over the next days. _

_Again, I hope you enjoyed it. _


	2. Chapter 2 - Gorgeous Eyes

_Thank you to all those who have been reading this fic. I hope you've been enjoying it so far._

_So... here we move on to the next chapter._

_An important warning note: I mentioned in a previous chapter that these stories take place in my AU. Well, said AU includes some behind the scenes stuff that hasn't been shown yet in the form of my fics, but which I plan to do at some point in the future. I tried to make the references to the 'relevant events' strong enough to stand on their own, but you'll be the judges on whether I succeeded._

_Thanks to lostbutterflyutau on Tumblr (Adrianna Nadine on this site) for taking a look at two scenes on this chapter and giving me her thoughts on them._

_I hope you enjoy._

* * *

**Chapter 2 - Gorgeous Eyes**

All too late, Alonso realized he should have been careful with what he wished for. Without the magister of trade's company, his stomach's protests were much more difficult to ignore, and even the other things he had to keep himself busy with in his messenger bag did not help much there.

His former self would have had less than exemplary attitudes - to say the least - but his current one thought he might as well do something productive while he waited. And even if said productive thing was difficult to focus on when he was so hungry, he knew from personal experience that hunger wouldn't be his biggest problem if he really needed to use it.

So, he grabbed his tamborita by its golden handle with black swirls and aimed it at his messenger bag, which lay on the floor by the door.

"Canaza!" he said as he tapped the tamborita's drum right over the silver horseshoe with red dots on it.

A pale yellow glow erupted around the messenger bag and it shot toward him so fast that Alonso could barely throw up the hand he'd tapped the tamborita with to grab it.

He frowned. He still had to practice to not put more magic than required into a given object. But at least it was a step up from the days he had problems moving anything heavier than a napkin even if it was only two feet from his tamborita.

_Let's try again, then._ He thought.

Those plans came to an end a moment afterwards, as the kitchen's doors creaked open behind him. Alonso turned behind and saw Julio Guzman approaching him with a plate in his hands and a rather surprised look on his face.

"Something wrong?" Alonso asked.

The man composed a neutral expression, which would have succeeded if not for his wide eyes. "I didn't know you could do magic, your highness."

Alonso frowned. Perhaps he shouldn't have started practicing magic in a place where anyone could stumble in at any time. But magic was something he had good reasons to get better at, and both Elena and Mateo had told him it took plenty of practice, which he had already learned from experience.

But he couldn't very well give the man all the details, even if he had to say something.

"Cordoba doesn't have a royal wizard," he explained. "And recent events made me realize what a gap that was. Avalor's royal wizard was kind enough to get me started on it a few months ago, and I was taking some time to practice."

That was all he dared to say. It was vague, but he didn't know the magister of trade well enough to bare his personal failures. The most he'd tell if pressed was about the incident where he couldn't do more about Victor and Carla Delgado than give them Pedro in an effort to slow them down while he sent Princess Elena a warning of their arrival - a warning she had never received, no thanks to her treacherous cousin.

It wasn't his most important reason to learn magic, but it was the only one he would dare to voice.

To his relief, Alonso didn't have to tell even that. Julio Guzman just nodded in acceptance as he approached the table, and Alonso held back a relieved sigh as he set the messenger bag on the floor and put the tamborita on his lap, on time for the other man to put his plate at the spot he had vacated.

"Here are the rissoles, Prince Alonso. My sister will bring the arroz rojo shortly."

"Thanks." Alonso replied before he turned to look at the dish that had been set down and the five snacks shaped like a half moon in it.

These rissoles' shape vaguely looked like that of the spinach puffs his grandfather loved to cook, and the deep friend exterior also was vaguely similar. But Alonso had eaten those countless times since he could remember, and could tell from the smell alone that these rissoles were nothing like his family's spinach puffs.

But they did smell delicious, and Alonso couldn't wait to try them.

"Is there any problem, Your Highness"

Julio's voice brought him back to reality, right on time for him to hear the kitchen's doors creaking again, presumably as Julio's sister walked out of it. Meanwhile, the man himself looked rather apprehensive. Apparently he hadn't liked that Alonso had decided to survey the rissoles before starting to eat them.

Well, there was no way out of it other than lying or being honest, and he was trying not to do the former, but he didn't really know how to do the latter without sounding offensive. Elena was right about the virtues of telling the truth, but it was difficult sometimes.

After some thinking, he settled on, "I was just thinking that these rissoles look like another snack I know, but I can tell from the smell alone they are clearly quite different."

Julio made a face as if he'd just spotted a plate of weird-looking food but was trying to hold back any honest comments on how it looked. Then, his eyes widened in very clear alarm, as Alonso could swear he felt a chill running down his back.

After a few seconds, there was a dull thud as something ceramic was set on a table, and then a female voice asked in a voice that sent a new chill down Alonso's back, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Alonso gulped at both the words and the question, as mortified as a child who'd said a swear word by accident. He might not be very bright, but he knew his attempt at politeness had been taken _very_ wrongly.

Torn between his fear and what he would see and his fear at giving whoever had spoken another reason to be angry, Alonso slowly turned back to look at the woman.

And then all breath left his lungs for a different reason entirely.

* * *

A moment ago, Carmen's blood had been boiling.

Now a different kind of heat spread through her body.

The moment the prince turned to look at her and their eyes met, it was like a spark falling on kindling covered in alcohol. What she could only describe as liquid glow rushed through her body from the end of her braid to the tips of her toes. The rest of the world vanished even more thoroughly than when she lost herself in her cooking. She only knew his gaze, and she could only stare into his gorgeous eyes, as sweet and warm as melted chocolate, and somehow more like windows to his soul than an actual window would be even if it didn't have glass panes or curtains behind it. Her whole being tingled with fuzziness from eye contact alone, and she just wanted to keep staring and staring, to get to know the gaze's owner as deeply as she could stare into it, and pour herself out to him at the same time.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice shouted at her what a load of nonsense it was for reasons she knew far too well.

Carmen ignored it.

* * *

An instant before, Alonso had shivered in fear.

Now he trembled from warmth.

The moment his eyes met hers, a light flared within him like a candle flame that only grew brighter and bigger and yet never burned. Every inch of his whole being seemed to be caressed by warm feathers as the rest of the world vanished much more completely than it ever did when he lost himself in all the horse-racing he did. All he knew was her gaze, and all he wanted to do was to stare into her gorgeous eyes, so much more beautiful than any gemstone he had ever seen, blazing with energy and passion with a softer kindness shining underneath. He remembered the old saying about the eyes being windows to the soul, but her eyes were like windows the Yacali had punched through.

He couldn't put exact words to the feeling, and he didn't want to. He just knew that he wanted to know he wanted to stare on and on, and get to know the woman those eyes belonged to as deeply as he could stare into them, and also let her get to know him just as deeply.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice shouted at him what a terrible idea it was for reasons he knew far too well.

Alonso ignored it.

* * *

Standing to Prince Alonso's right, Julio could only blink in confusion at what transpired before him. He had thought he would be about to see the heir to Cordoba get chewed out by Carmen over his comment on abuela's recipe, especially when Carmen made it a point to set down the bowl with arroz rojo on the nearest table before putting her hands on her hips.

But before Julio could even try to get ready to prevent what could be a diplomatic catastrophe, both Carmen's fury and Prince Alonso's fear seemed to shatter like crystal as they just started staring into each other's eyes like characters from those cheesy romance novels Julio would sometimes look at, the kind that fell in love at first sight and from that moment on could never be driven apart.

Nonsense, as far as Julio was concerned. Carmen was not celibate by any means, but he couldn't remember her paying much attention to her dates' loks. As for Prince Alonso, Julio knew he had gone out with plenty of girls, and even if it seemed that in his particular case they really were just dates, he still wasn't impressed.

Point was, neither of them seemed the kind to fall in love at first sight. And yet, unless Julio's eyes and other senses were deceiving him, that was happening at this very moment.

Julio snapped out of those thoughts as something seemed to shift in their gazes, but neither of them broke eye contact.

"You have gorgeous eyes," Prince Alonso whispered as if he just couldn't keep that to himself.

"You too," Carmen replied in a matching tone.

As far as eyes went, Julio could swear his own had widened to the size of pumpkins. Really? This had to be beyond any cheesy romance novel he had ever glimpsed!

And yet, from their tones, Julio knew both of them meant every sound they made.

He just hoped he wouldn't actually start to see pink hearts popping out of them.

As if that thought was all it took to break the magic, both Carmen and Prince Alonso jerked as if snapping from a trance, and Carmen even shook her head like a wet dog before putting a fierce glare back on her face and drawing the serving spoon from the bowl of arroz like a sword as she stomped over to Alonso and leaned down so close into his face that their noses were almost touching.

"Just who do you think you are to come here and talk like that?" she demanded. "You may be used to caviar and foie gras and I don't know whatever else you stuck-up fancy royals eat, but that gives you no right to be rude! If you don't like the food, just say so! And if you don't like it, you may as well go hungry! But you're not coming here to throw thinly veiled insults at these recipes!" She raised the serving spoon toward the prince's face so fast he barely managed to lean away from it. "Do you understand?"

Julio gulped as Carmen glared at the wide-eyed prince. He knew Carmen could get touchy when someone disparaged abuelita's cooking, especially when it happened close to sensitive times of the year, but he had never seen her _this _cross. Thankfully Prince Alonso seemed startled rather than outraged, but Carmen might well be about to ruin the alliance between Avalor and Cordoba. Julio understood where she was coming from, but he had to somehow temper her extreme reaction.

He raised his hand to draw their attention, but then Carmen made it a point to intensify her glare before she straightened herself and turned around to stomp her way back to the kitchen.

She only got halfway there before her foot slid against the floor and her whole body turned upwards as a cry flew from her lips.

* * *

_So... this was chapter 2. I hope you've enjoyed it. _

_I can't promise when chapter 3 will come, but I hope it won't take too long. _


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